Customer Reviews

Ice Tomb

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

You've all heard the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover;" but somehow, when a hard SF book that purports to be well researched, is set in Antarctica, but has a polar bear on the cover, one really begins to wonder.

Fortunately, the science inside the book, while at times highly speculative, seems pretty accurate. As a scientist myself I must admit that the author has captured the scientist mindset, and while a number of themes such as Atlantean super-technology, moon colonization and unscrupulous media-seeking scientists aren't anything new, they are employed in a well-coordinated, entertaining and -- for all the SF and fantasy that has been set in Antarctica -- fairly original manner.

In Ice Tomb a new hotspot develops in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which isn't entirely odd since Antarctica is seismically and volcanically active, but when those who investigate the site disappear, it's time to send in someone who knows what they might be up against. Erica Daniels, a vulcanologist, is summoned by NASA, thinking she has been chosen as head geologist for an expedition seeking to prepare the colonisation of the moon. So when the ex-lover who betrayed her gets the job, she's assigned to the Antarctica hot spot project, and she's saddled with a media-hungry archæologist with a bent for finding Atlantis along with a bunch of gung-ho armed-to-the-teeth marines, she's not a happy camper. What she will find in the barrens of Antarctica will bring her and her ex back together, demonstrate there's something to that old Atlantean super-technology, and, oh yes, determine the fate of the human race in the face a massive impending meteor impact.

Stories of lost races (or their artefacts) in Antarctica go way back, Robert Paltock's The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751) being perhaps the earliest. Oddly enough, be it the author's avowed reading of much SF and fantasy informing her writing, or merely coincidence, one can find a number of parallels with the incidents in Ice Tomb and a number of older tales. For example, in Gustavus Pope's Journey to Mars (1894), Martians have a landing field in Antarctica, and are at risk when a meteor shower threatens to strip a moon away from their planet. Along those lines is José Moselli's "Le Messager de la Planète" (in L'Almanach Scientifique, 1925), where a pair of Norwegian explorers, one a geologist, discover an alien spacecraft which is melting the ice around it; before their sled dog kills the alien aboard, they are shown instant video linkup to his home planet, and a number of other nifty technologies. And of course, for people disappearing mysteriously in Antarctica, and the paranoia surrounding it, one cannot forget John W. Campbell, Jr's novella "Who Goes There?" (1938) [the basis of the films The Thing From Another World (1951) and more recently The Thing (1982)].

That said, Deborah Jackson does create believable characters, and manages to present the more esoteric technologies without great gobs of exposition. Jackson's handling of the consequences of all that happens is perhaps a bit terse considering the enormity of the events, and certainly one might expect those who live through it to be somewhat more traumatized, but perhaps -- I speculate -- this is all sequel-fodder. As for Ice Tomb I'm not saying the whole thing is entirely believable, even the parts which don't involve super-technologies, but a rapid pace and multi-dimensional characters who actually evolve make Ice Tomb eminently readable and any minor flaws easily ignored.

Georges T Dodds
SF Site
www.sfsite.com

In 1929, a map of the New World dated 1513 CE was discovered. Highly detailed, the cartographer declared in his notes that he had drawn on many sources, some quite ancient, to produce the chart. The cartographer was a Turkish Admiral and the chart became known as the Piri Reis Map. Among its mysteries, it depicted a detailed shoreline of Antarctica.

The Piri Reis Map becomes a key element in Deborah Jackson's adventurous tale of scientists confronting bizarre mysteries in harsh conditions. Erica Daniels is a mountain climber. She's a vulcanologist and the mountains she climbs are capable of ejecting her from their slopes - along with tons of rock, ash and lava. Erica has had more than mountains to conquer. The machinations of ambitious men have been as severe a hazard as any pyroclastic flow. In university, her career well planned and ready to be undertaken, her lover decamps with her thesis to initiate his own success.

As a result, David Marsh becomes a noted geologist. He's crafty and ambitious, rising to be chosen to investigate craters on the moon for water and minerals. Chance observations of our neighbour in space have indicated the possibility that Luna may not be as dead as is thought. If the moon has geological activity, it will have serious implications for any colony. NASA has already taken the first step with a HAB base constructed only nine years from now. In Jackson's story, the year 2015 will be portentious. Relations with China will have improved to the point where an astronaut from there will be joining Marsh on his expedition. There are interesting lunar features to explore and Marsh is the best researcher available. Or is he?

Although Daniels and Marsh carry abrasive memories of their past relationship, Jackson's story keeps them interacting at several levels. Erica has been called away from an Alaskan climb that threatened to extinguish her abilities - along with herself - to journey to the other Pole. From a "hotspot" atop an Alaskan mountain, she's been asked to cross the globe to Antarctica. Another "hotspot" - one that shouldn't exist - has been reported on the southernmost continent. Worse, it seems to have been gobbling up people. On her way, Erica encounters archaeologist Allan Rocheford. Inexplicably, this desert digger is also interested in the Antarctic hotspot. He has an idea of why it's there and what it implies. He's found something in a dig in Egypt that relates to the evidence given by the Piri Reis map - Antarctica hasn't always enjoyed the conditions there now. Is the "hotspot" under the ice an alien artefact? Or something even more profound?

Marsh arrives on the moon and begins exploring one of the mysterious "rilles" - deep ravines that stretch over the moonscape. He encounters wholly unexpected conditions. "Lava tubes" are a phenomenon of some Earth volcanoes. They are the result of quick surface cooling of molten magma leaving the interior still fluid and flowing. The result is a long cylinder of stone, easily adaptable to conversion into a habitat. On the moon the much-reduced force of gravity could leave such structures much larger than found here. What might such a stone configuration contain? With his Russian companion, Vochenkov, Marsh seeks understanding of this most bizarre of lunar secrets. Is the moon still an active world? What will that mean for the extension of the habitat? Marsh's explorations indicate he needs more expertise to resolve the riddles. Who better to supply that extra knowledge than Erica Daniels? The link between the mysterious structures on the moon and the enigma under Antarctic ice reveals the deepest mystery of all.

Jackson's book is a good reason why speculative fiction should shed its stigma of "fantasy based on research". Set in the immediate future, and based on a wealth of research, there is little here that couldn't be achieved in this story. Nor are the speculations wholly invalid. The Piri Reis Map was assessed by cartographers who deemed most of its displayed landforms as conforming to modern configurations. Jackson builds her story with care, staffing it with people we might encounter in any academic or government research facility. There are petty jealousies, intense emotion both attractive and repellent. The scientist's dedication to revealing the underlying elements of what appears to be fantastic is admirably displayed. Erica Daniels may appear a bit explosive, but what other characteristics is one to expect from a vulcanologist? David Marsh plunders a thesis, but competition among scientists has bred unsavoury conduct before. In short, this is an adventuresome tale in a realistic setting. It's something to take up when you seek excitement. You won't be disappointed. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

ICE TOMB
By Deborah Jackson (The Invisible College Press ISBN 1-931468-19-2; $24.95)

A gripping page-turner for sci-fi buffs. But others just may be converted after reading this debut novel from Ottawa's Deborah Jackson.

From the bone-chilling ice caps of Antarctica to the strange ecosystem on the moon, Jackson takes the reader on a whirlwind ride that includes ancient earth mysteries and futuristic technology tossed in with a sensual interlude and a jaded romance. Jackson's characters move through this novel like a thunder storm on a hot afternoon-fast, powerful and captivating.

"...It wasn't until strange things started happening down here that NASA and the Pentagon became interested in those coordinates."

"Strange as in thermal activity or strange as in people disappearing?"

Erica Daniels heads up a scientific investigation, which leads to some unexpected findings and a surprise finale.

Jackson has researched well for this one; too bad the publishers didn't do the same, placing a polar bear in a purposed Antarctic landscape on the cover! Ah-well! Go with the old adage; "Don't judge a book by its cover." This one's worth opening up!

In 2015, volcanologist Erica Daniels believes she will be named as the crater impact specialist on NASA's mission to establish moon base. To her chagrin, her bitter rival David Marsh, who stole her thesis when they were academic lovers, gets the assignment.

However, Dr. Albert of NASA offers Erica a different project where he believes her expertise is badly needed. In Antarctica, a hotspot inside the ice has been found and investigated by scientists at the McMurdo Station, several are missing and apparently dead; global warming has been ruled out as the heating seems to come from a machine that one of the doomed scientists claimed is similar to a gigantic MRI. Accompanying Erica on this quest is archeologist, Allan Rocheford, who plans to prove Atlantis existed, but he is also know for selling his finds to the highest bidder. Erica's mission is to learn how big a threat to the world that recently included China as a member of the growing democracy club is this phenomena.

ICE TOMB is a terrific science fiction that works on several levels because the scientists seem real as jealousy, intellectual thievery and ambition get in the way of solid research. The story line is fast-paced with aggressive Erica bullying everyone in sight providing much of the first person perspective. At times the plot switches to David on the moon. This occurs especially when he knows he must face the lioness he betrayed for her opinion on what he as found. Readers will enjoy this strong thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Erica Daniels is a brilliant volcanologist whose greatest joy is investigating live volcanoes and studying the crater valleys on the earth left from million year old impacts from meteors.

David Marsh is a man struggling with obsessive perfectionism, driven to lie, cheat, and steal in order to impress his overly ambitious father. Erica and David were lovers in college, until David steals Erica's thesis and presents it as his own, leaving her behind to make his own selfish climb up the NASA ladder of success.

Erica has never forgiven David, and becomes furious when she learns that David Marsh has beaten her out of the most coveted assignment to ever appear in her field, a trip to the moon's habitat station to study the craters and dead volcanoes there.

Instead, Erica is assigned to investigate a strange "hot spot" down in Antarctica, not far from the McMurdo Station. Even stranger is the accompaniment of highly trains Navy SEALS that travel with her, and the unscrupulous archeologist Allan Rocheford, once accused of stripping valuables from an Egyptian dig and selling the priceless treasures to private collectors.

Once in Antarctica, Erica is relieved to meet Cathy Jones, a guide assigned to the McMurdo Station, and a companion she can trust other than the SEALS and Allan. While Erica struggles to make sense of the strange occurrences surrounding her "hot spot", David finds himself in over his head when sent out to explore the Hadley Rille on the moon. Separates by more than just miles and space, David and Erica find that their explorations have strange similarities.

How could an explosion happen in the vacuum of space? Why is there bodies preserved in the ice of Antarctica? Are these new discoveries, or ancient remnants of lost civilization? The two explorers find themselves thinking of each other more and more often as events unfold that are beyond their expertise and understanding.

In spite of the intriguing storyline, there were too many flaws in the book to give it more than three stars. There are some editing/publisher grammatical errors that stood out too boldly to ignore, and I felt that the characters needed more development beyond their obvious lingering lust for each other.

Most disappointing was what was left unsaid and undone at the ending. Don't get me wrong, the ending was a great way to finish the book, but it needed more fleshing out to give me the lip-smacking satisfaction that I wanted. There were too many gaping wounds that were passed over, such as how the characters would fit in, and new policies to establish, who would become what and where would the future be leading. I can't say more without revealing too much of the book, but overall I would say that this is a great vacation read (I myself read it on vacation) or a beach read, but not a book to take too seriously. I do, however, look forward to more work from Ms. Jackson, as I believe she has talent. Enjoy!

You've all heard the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover;" but somehow, when a hard SF book that purports to be well researched, is set in Antarctica, but has a polar bear on the cover, one really begins to wonder.

Fortunately, the science inside the book, while at times highly speculative, seems pretty accurate. As a scientist myself I must admit that the author has captured the scientist mindset, and while a number of themes such as Atlantean super-technology, moon colonization and unscrupulous media-seeking scientists aren't anything new, they are employed in a well-coordinated, entertaining and -- for all the SF and fantasy that has been set in Antarctica -- fairly original manner.

In Ice Tomb a new hotspot develops in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which isn't entirely odd since Antarctica is seismically and volcanically active, but when those who investigate the site disappear, it's time to send in someone who knows what they might be up against. Erica Daniels, a vulcanologist, is summoned by NASA, thinking she has been chosen as head geologist for an expedition seeking to prepare the colonisation of the moon. So when the ex-lover who betrayed her gets the job, she's assigned to the Antarctica hot spot project, and she's saddled with a media-hungry archæologist with a bent for finding Atlantis along with a bunch of gung-ho armed-to-the-teeth marines, she's not a happy camper. What she will find in the barrens of Antarctica will bring her and her ex back together, demonstrate there's something to that old Atlantean super-technology, and, oh yes, determine the fate of the human race in the face a massive impending meteor impact.

Stories of lost races (or their artefacts) in Antarctica go way back, Robert Paltock's The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751) being perhaps the earliest. Oddly enough, be it the author's avowed reading of much SF and fantasy informing her writing, or merely coincidence, one can find a number of parallels with the incidents in Ice Tomb and a number of older tales. For example, in Gustavus Pope's Journey to Mars (1894), Martians have a landing field in Antarctica, and are at risk when a meteor shower threatens to strip a moon away from their planet. Along those lines is José Moselli's "Le Messager de la Planète" (in L'Almanach Scientifique, 1925), where a pair of Norwegian explorers, one a geologist, discover an alien spacecraft which is melting the ice around it; before their sled dog kills the alien aboard, they are shown instant video linkup to his home planet, and a number of other nifty technologies. And of course, for people disappearing mysteriously in Antarctica, and the paranoia surrounding it, one cannot forget John W. Campbell, Jr's novella "Who Goes There?" (1938) [the basis of the films The Thing From Another World (1951) and more recently The Thing (1982)].

That said, Deborah Jackson does create believable characters, and manages to present the more esoteric technologies without great gobs of exposition. Jackson's handling of the consequences of all that happens is perhaps a bit terse considering the enormity of the events, and certainly one might expect those who live through it to be somewhat more traumatized, but perhaps -- I speculate -- this is all sequel-fodder. As for Ice Tomb I'm not saying the whole thing is entirely believable, even the parts which don't involve super-technologies, but a rapid pace and multi-dimensional characters who actually evolve make Ice Tomb eminently readable and any minor flaws easily ignored.

Georges T Dodds
SF Site
www.sfsite.com

Ms. Jackson entrances the reader by keeping the secret of the Antarctic just out of reach. The characters are well developed and easy to identify with. The science is plausible and well researched. Like Fredrick Pohl, the author weaves an immensely entertaining tale of intrigue and suspense.

In reading Deborah Jackson's book "Ice Tomb", I was quickly drawn into the intrigue and romance - a real page-turner. Ms. Jackson has demonstrated a love of science and adventure in this novel. She has portrayed her characters in a very believable and enjoyable fashion. I look forward to reading her next novel.

I don't usually read science fiction, however, I may just change my mind after reading Ms. Jackson's Ice Tomb. The characters are well developed and easy to identify with. The plot has intrigue and suspense, and I found it hard to put the book down. I was hooked after the first chapter. I highly recommend this book, especially if you love an eclectic mix of well crafted suspense, mystery, romance and a good dollop of believable science fiction, then this book is for you.

Being a frequent flier, I like to read to pass the time. My wife picked up Ice Tomb and I grabbed it as I left for the airport not knowing what to expect. Once we were airborne, I couldn't put this book down. I've never been a science fiction reader, but Ice Tomb caught my attention and held it to the very last page. I find it difficult to believe that this is Deborah Jackson's first book. A truly fabulous read combining action, science fiction and mystery. I look forward to Ms Jackson's next book.